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In recent news, we've learnt that Russia has allegedly begun the production of the venerable FAB-3000 bomb, sporting more than a thousand kilos of explosives; they certainly pack a punch. But why now? I see one likely and one less likely answer to this question. We'll start with the more probable: Russia intends to use these to defeat Ukraine's defences. We've seen that Ukraine has begun the construction of massive defensive lines. One key difference between their defensive lines and ours is their use of more centralized citadel-like structures in combination with trench lines and other standard defences. Usually, these...

President Joe Biden's demagoguery has no limits, nor even a grain of logic. His clueless and knee-jerk reflex just reverts to labeling political opponents and dissenters as embracing "semi-fascism," and so-called "MAGA Republicans" as "thriving on chaos." Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. You would be hard pressed to find any American joyfully thriving on the chaos created by Joe Biden's utterly contemptible and chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan one year ago; or the blatant chaos created by Biden's un-enforced southern border; or the chaos of the fentanyl epidemic created by Biden's feckless border and national security policies; or...

Federal authorities are investigating whether sensitive data was stolen from congressional offices by several Pakistani-American tech staffers and sold to Pakistani or Russian intelligence, knowledgeable sources say. What started out 16 months ago as a scandal involving the alleged theft of computer equipment from Congress has turned into a national-security investigation involving FBI surveillance of the suspects.

To be honest, I’d never much thought about the Ebola lockdowns in Sierra Leone and Liberia in 2014 and 2015. Within public health, the Sierra Leone and Liberia lockdowns were an early illustration of the fact that lockdowns were ineffective, but governments of developing nations sometimes do strange things; the idea that these lockdowns might have greater geopolitical significance never occurred to me. This changed dramatically when I began studying social media activity about lockdowns before 2020. Prior to 2014, and from 2016 to 2019, there’s virtually no social media activity about lockdowns. However, this pattern changes abruptly during one...

Thunderbird 1.5 Released Scott MacGregor writes: "The final release of Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5 is now available for download from getthunderbird.com. Users of RC1 should see the update soon. If you are using RC2, then you already have 1.5 final.""Thunderbird 1.5 introduces several new features including a software update system, spell check as you type, built in phishing detector, auto save as draft, and support for deleting attachments from email messages. Message filtering has also been improved with new filter actions for replying and forwarding. Saved search folders can now search folders across multiple accounts." "More details can be found in...

Iraq oil cash funded MPs' campaigns Businessmen handed on money illicitly siphoned from UN deals to pressure groups run by George Galloway and Tam Dalyell David Leigh and David Pallister Tuesday February 17, 2004 The Guardian Money illicitly siphoned from the UN oil-for-food programme by Saddam Hussein was used to finance anti-sanctions campaigns run by British politicians, according to documents that have surfaced in Baghdad. Undercover cash from oil deals went to three businessmen who in turn supported pressure groups involving the ex-Labour MP George Galloway, Labour MP Tam Dalyell, and the former Irish premier Albert Reynolds, it is alleged...

China China set to flood the world with chips By Macabe Keliher TAIPEI - Last September Morris Chang alarmed the semiconductor industry when he said there would be an industrywide recession in 2005 and that the Chinese chip makers would cause it. "I stand by that statement. China's capacity in 2005 will have a big impact," the chairman of the world's largest made-to-order integrated-circuit and computer-chip manufacturer, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), has told Asia Times Online. That's something of an understatement. In pursuit of a policy that will make China nearly self-reliant in semiconductor manufacturing, and enable the country...

Here's what I've found so far: "Schwartz" for the NY Daily News AP via the NY Post Louis Lanzano for the Associated Press Mohammed Awad for Reuters

Intel to start fab plant in China Compelling reasons to shift By Mike Magee: Wednesday 07 August 2002, 11:10 RELIABLE SOURCES TELL the INQUIRER that by the year 2005 there's likely to be an Intel fabrication plant located in mainland China. And the firm is also planning on boosting its presence in Malaysia and another unnamed Asian country, we have learned. Intel already has a Chinese research centre in Beijing, to which it is actively recruiting staff, and a flash memory factory in Shanghai. But a fab in mainland China has obvious advantages. It would give Intel direct access to...